THE debate began on the subject of the insecurity that has enveloped Australia since September 11, with the first question going toJohn Howard.

The Prime Minister said he was in the US at the time the attacks occurred and it was the first thing he thinks about when he wakes up. He said we needed to draw on the strengths of our nation and defend the values that are under attack.

“If there is a nation on Earth that is better equipped than most to handle this adversity it is Australia,” Mr Howard said. “We are an optimistic people. We see the good in each other now as never before.”

Kim Beazley agreed with Mr Howard’s comments on the strength of our nation. “He was right when he said one of the things we need is a community.”

But 10 minutes in, he shifted the debate to security measures, including his proposal for the establishment of a coastguard.

“We need a coastguard, we actually have to have people who are policemen on the beat, it is not the right role for the navy,” he said.

From there the debate turned to refugees, where both leaders took a hard line, vowing to turn away illegal asylum-seekers. Mr Howard expressed his gratitude to the navy personnel involved.

“We have stemmed the flow,” he declared. “If we had not committed those naval vessels, we would have thousands more people wanting to arrive in this country.”

This riled the Opposition Leader, who lambasted his opponent over his last-minute border protection legislation.

“We have had 13,000 boatpeople come to this country in the last decade — 2000 under the Labor Party and 11,000 under you.”

This got a heated response from Mr Howard, who attacked Mr Beazley for his refusal to allow the initial Border Protection Bill to pass through the parliament. He said one of the reasons so many asylum-seekers were arriving was because the Government had been unable to get laws through the Senate to deal with them more expeditiously.

But Mr Beazley said it was Labor that put in place compulsory detention and that it had better relations with Indonesia and would cut boat smugglers off at their source.

Ray Martin forcibly moved the discussion on to reconciliation.

The Prime Minister repeated his refusal to enter into a treaty with Aboriginal people, saying it was divisive and would not be on theGovernment’s agenda while he was in office. “We are one indivisible nation,” he said.

He promoted the Government’s efforts on “practical” reconciliation, claiming there were four times the number of Aborigines in apprenticeships and traineeships since he came to government, the numbers of indigenous people going to university had gone up and the number in professional training had also risen.

Mr Beazley avoided the treaty controversy, saying instead there should be “an agreement” with Aboriginal people.

“I think that when folk are coming to you, in all honesty, to try and get together with you, unify the community, you should respond to a desire to see that community unified,” the Labor leader said.

Halfway into the debate came Mr Beazley’s time to talk on his priority subject, education. He said Australia had fallen behind in world standards and that the Coalition had ripped $1 billion out of the nation’s university funding.

“We are threatened with global irrelevance if we are not a clever and creative people,” Mr Beazley said. “If we do not devote more of our national effort to the education system, we are a nation which in future is going to be in trouble.”

Mr Howard fought back, saying education funding had increased significantly under his Government to a total of $31billion nationally across all governments. He said he agreed with the proposition of more money for education, which must come about through developing a strong economy.

He then turned on Mr Beazley, describing his plan to roll back the GST as the most “grievous fraud” in the election campaign.

“What the GST will do over time is to deliver growing revenues to all of the state governments, and out of those growing revenues thestate governments can spend more money on government schools, and incidentally public hospitals.

“It strikes me as the great policy fraud of this whole election campaign that Kim Beazley, the man who says he is such a champion of more resources going into education, is in fact intending to roll back the very revenue mechanism which will give the Australianstates over time the capacity.”

He said “the man who says he wants to be the education prime minister of Australia is committed to rolling back the very mechanism” that would make it possible.

But Mr Beazley responded strongly to the attack, saying the “only grievous fraud in this, John, is your statement that you would never ever have a GST”.

The leaders then attacked each other over economic policies, with Mr Howard saying a Labor government would see unreasonable trade union involvement in the affairs of the country and a return to economic mismanagement.

“We have seen a fall in interest rates, a reduction in unemployment rates, a dramatic fall in debt,” Mr Howard said.

Asked what he feared most if his opponent won, Mr Howard replied: “The thing that would grieve me most about the election of a Labor government, is that you’d have a Labor government in Canberra, and you’d have Labor governments in every state except South Australia. In those circumstances, to use the Australian vernacular, the boys and girls of the union movement, the union bosses, would make whoopee.”

To which Mr Beazley responded: “We can get the commonwealth working together with the states on education, the environment, health, instead of the endless bickering between state premiers and federal prime ministers.”

In their final remarks, Mr Howard spoke of his steadfastness, tenacity, consistency and commitment, and reiterated his determination to see Australians through “these very difficult circumstances”.

“I have been toughened and tempered through these past few years,” he said. “I believe I have the strength, skill and experience to seethe Australian people through these challenging times.”

Mr Beazley concluded by saying: “I just ask the Australian people this, do you think you are better off now than you were five years ago?

“Do you think the GST has made you better off if you are there in small businesses and struggling to administer it?

“Do you think you are better off with your public hospitals, are they better than they were five years ago?

“What about your public schools, are they better than they were five years ago? Do you feel more secure with your employees entitlements and with the industrial legislation that impacts on you? Do you feel more secure?

“There would be few Australians who would say yes to these questions.”

WHERE THEY STAND

* On national security

Mr Howard: “If there is a nation better equipped than most to handle this adversity it is Australia.”

Mr Beazley: “We need a coastguard; we have to have people who are policemen on the beat.”

* On refugees

Mr Howard: “If we had not committed those naval vessels we would have thousands more people wanting to arrive in this country.”

Mr Beazley: “We have had 13,000 boatpeople come in the last decade, 2000 under Labor and 11,000 under you.”

* On reconciliation

Mr Howard: Repeated his refusal to enter into a “divisive” treaty.

Mr Beazley: “When folk are coming to you in all honesty to try and get together with you, you should respond to a desire to see that community unified.”

* On GST rollback

Mr Howard: Mr Beazley’s plan was the most “grievous fraud” in the election campaign.

Mr Beazley: “The only grievous fraud in this, John, is your statement that you would never ever do a GST.”